Denis Lacombe Takes Over as Head of EORTC

Denis Lacombe, M.D., has been appointed Director General of the Brussels-based European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).

“The cancer clinical research environment has become increasingly complex over the years, but I am confident that together with my upper management team at EORTC Headquarters, Vassilis Golfinopoulos, Medical Director, Jan Bogaerts, Methodology Director, and Christian Brunet, Chief Financial Officer, the EORTC can adapt and thrive in this rapidly changing environment,” he noted in a statement issued on 3 April. “I have known many of you for years, and I look forward to continuing and strengthening our working relationships.”

Lacombe took a post-doctoral fellowship in Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacokinetics at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, between 1989 and 1991. He then worked as Clinical Research Adviser in charge of the development of a new oncology drug in the pharmaceutical industry, and was involved in the management of the phase I and phase II studies in Europe.

He joined EORTC in September 1993 as Clinical Research Physician. Between 1993 and 2006, he was in charge of the Regulatory Affairs Unit, and was a regular speaker at the Applied Clinical Trials European Summit. Between 2003 and 2009, Lacombe was a Clinical Research Physician for the Head & Neck Tumor Group, and is still a Clinical Research Physician for the Brain Tumor and the Lung Groups. Until 2007, as Assistant Director of Medical Affairs, he coordinated the EORTC New Drug Development Team (NDD Team), which supported EORTC clinical groups conducting new drug development studies from protocol development to publication. In November 2007, he became Scientific Director of the EORTC.

The longstanding director general, Françoise Meunier, has moved to a new role within the operation. She became Director of Special Projects on 1 April, and will represent the organization externally, coordinate fundraising activities, and sit on the board of EORTC Cancer Research Fund.

The EORTC is an independent research organization dedicated to investigator driven clinical trials and translational research. Consisting of both a network and a coordinating scientific and operational infrastructure, it seeks to not only establish ‘state-of-the-art’ treatments but also ensure that new cancer agents are developed and tested efficiently with the aim of minimizing delays between laboratory discovery and their therapeutic benefit for patients.